After nearly 47 years, Parnassus is closing. It has been an exhilarating and wonderful adventure to publish a literary magazine that was in the thick of evaluating new poetry from all corners of the world. Our final issue, our 52nd, will b published in two or three weeks. Here are some of its highlights:

• a tribute to Max Ritvo, a brilliantly talented young poet who died of cancer at the much-too-young-age of 25, featuring three unpublished poems by Max, a reminiscence of him by Herbert Leibowitz, six poems by Elizabeth Metzger, Max’s “soul twin,” and a review, by Julian Gewirtz of Max’s first book Four Reincarnations;
• four posthumous poems of Lucie Brock-Broido;
• Rachel Eliza Griffiths’ poignant, elegiac memory of her mother in words and photographs;
• a poem by A.E. Stallings of the Minotaur and an artwork by Daniel Maidman of the same Greek mythic figure;

• nine monologues by Susan Yankowitz from her various plays;
• a review of the late Bill Knott’s poems by Robert Archambeau;
• Mark Polizzotti’s provocative look at Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo and Stuart Klawan’s trenchant analysis of Preston Sturges’ The Great McGinty;

• poems by Eric Ormsby and David Mason about grandmothers;
•  four poems by Clare Rossini about art and three autobiographical poems by Mary Karr;
• essays that lead the reader into quirky places, like Alex Ross’ piece on Pierre Boulez’s setting of a Mallarmé poem;

As a special gift, each buyer of this issue of Parnassus will receive Orphic Machine, a CD featuring the brilliant jazz clarinetist, Ben Goldberg.

480 pages and a haunting CD, all for the bargain price of $15! You can obtain a copy through the PayPal link on our website, or mail a check, payable to Poetry In Review Foundation. We will ship a copy to you as fast as we can.

I salute all poetry lovers who have supported Parnassus over the years and enabled us to survive for nearly half a century.